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I'm considering starting a WIP that came to me earlier today. It's about a pregnant teenager. I want to start the story with the scene where she realizes she's pregnant, because it's my strongest.
Here's my question:
It's first person. I'm considering doing this scene in present tense and, at the end of the scene, it moving into the "start" of the story, which happens two months before, during the summer. It details how she got herself into the position she's in, who the baby's father is and all. This would, naturally, I believe, need to be in past tense, probably with a header that reads, "Two Months Ago."
What's the general consensus on doing this? I know it's best to reveal backstory through the main line of the plot, that doing things out of chronological sequence is often frowned on, but I feel like the story of the future of her pregnancy cannot stand without seeing the circumstances that happened before.
So, I was planning on it looking something like this:
Chapter 1 - Present tense, realizes she's pregnant, reveals there could be two different fathers to best friend, who tells her to tell him everything, starting at the beginning. She recalls that it begins with her rival for her boyfriend's affections, Paige.
Chapter 2 - Two Months Ago.
Then, around chapter five or so, she'll be out of the "Summer" Part of the book and back in the present day, when she realizes she's pregnant and the story will continue from there. Although, I really don't like the idea of doing the entire back-half of the novel in present tense...
A second option, of course, would be to have the present part as a prologue and divide the book into sections by season, which would be kind of Juno, but the "Fall" section could start with a re-working of the prologue scene.
I don't know. All I know is I really need to open with the realization scene, because it's the hookiest I have. And, I would like to, from that scene, move two months into the past.
Thoughts? Feelings? I don't want it to be a mess. Could someone who is much more adept at framing help me out with some advice?
Here's my question:
It's first person. I'm considering doing this scene in present tense and, at the end of the scene, it moving into the "start" of the story, which happens two months before, during the summer. It details how she got herself into the position she's in, who the baby's father is and all. This would, naturally, I believe, need to be in past tense, probably with a header that reads, "Two Months Ago."
What's the general consensus on doing this? I know it's best to reveal backstory through the main line of the plot, that doing things out of chronological sequence is often frowned on, but I feel like the story of the future of her pregnancy cannot stand without seeing the circumstances that happened before.
So, I was planning on it looking something like this:
Chapter 1 - Present tense, realizes she's pregnant, reveals there could be two different fathers to best friend, who tells her to tell him everything, starting at the beginning. She recalls that it begins with her rival for her boyfriend's affections, Paige.
Chapter 2 - Two Months Ago.
Then, around chapter five or so, she'll be out of the "Summer" Part of the book and back in the present day, when she realizes she's pregnant and the story will continue from there. Although, I really don't like the idea of doing the entire back-half of the novel in present tense...
A second option, of course, would be to have the present part as a prologue and divide the book into sections by season, which would be kind of Juno, but the "Fall" section could start with a re-working of the prologue scene.
I don't know. All I know is I really need to open with the realization scene, because it's the hookiest I have. And, I would like to, from that scene, move two months into the past.
Thoughts? Feelings? I don't want it to be a mess. Could someone who is much more adept at framing help me out with some advice?
